Humanitarian boost: India sends 16-tonne medical lifeline to Afghanistan

Taliban spokesperson Sharafat Zaman confirmed the development and wrote on X: "India Donates over 16 Tonnes of Anti-Vector Borne Disease Medicines to Afghanistan."

He further said, "The government of India has extended a significant gesture of humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan by gifting over16 tonnes of anti-vector borne disease medicines and diagnostic kits."

India sent the medical assistance to Afghanistan at a time when the country's  Foreign Minister Mawlawi Amir Khan Muttaqi visited New Delhi last month.

Following his visit, the Indian government on October upgraded the Technical Mission of the country in Kabul to an Embassy of India in Afghanistan with immediate effect.

“In keeping with the decision announced during the recent visit of the Afghan Foreign Minister to India, the Government is restoring the status of the Technical Mission of India in Kabul to that of Embassy of India in Afghanistan with immediate effect. This decision underscores India’s resolve to deepen its bilateral engagement with the Afghan side in all spheres of mutual interest,” read a statement issued by the Ministry of External Affairs.

“The Embassy of India in Kabul will further augment India’s contribution to Afghanistan’s comprehensive development, humanitarian assistance, and capacity-building initiatives, in keeping with the priorities and aspirations of Afghan society,” the statement said.

The decision regarding the upgradation of the Technical Mission was announced during Muttaqi’s meeting with Indian EAM S Jaishankar in New Delhi.

India shut down its Embassy in Kabul in 2021 after the fall of the former President Ashraf Ghani-led government in the face of the Taliban’s swift actions to take control of the country on August 15 that year.

The Indian consulates in Mazaar-i-Sharif, Jalalabad, Kandahar and Herat were also closed that year.